The Virgin Suicides

The Virgin Suicides is a realistic fiction novel written by Jeffrey Eugenides and originally published in 1993. Using death by suicide as its central motif, the novel examines the themes of The Objectification of Women, Romanticizing the Past, and The Effects of Loss. A statement of youth disillusionment, death by suicide becomes The Death of the Future, another of the novel’s themes. The novel was adapted into a critically acclaimed film directed by Sofia Coppola in 2000.

This guide utilizes the 2011 Random House edition of the novel.

Content Warning: The novel, this guide, and each of its sections contain descriptions—some of which are graphic—of death by suicide, self-harm, and youth sexuality.

Plot Summary

The story unfolds in a quiet suburb in Michigan in the 1970s. It’s narrated by a group of men who look back on their lives as teens, when they continually obsessed over the five young Lisbon sisters, who lived on their street and who, in the narrative past, died by suicide for various reasons. These girls, named Therese, Mary, Bonnie, Lux, and Cecilia, live a confined life because of their fundamentally religious mother and unassertive father.